This afternoon, the Montgomery County Council voted unamimously in favor Bill 23-12, the Mongtomery County Open Data Act of 2012.... View Article
Continue readingCityCamp Colorado – Bringing Innovation to Life
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. Sunlight Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the guest blog. Scott Primeau is a board member of OpenColorado, a nonprofit organization established in 2009 to promote government transparency and citizen participation. Scott has also been an employee for a Colorado state agency since 2003. He provides project management, policy research and analysis, and customer engagement services. Scott has a bachelor’s degree in public affairs management from Indiana University and is a passionate supporter of improving citizen participation and government collaboration. You can contact him at scott.primeau@opencolorado.org. The third annual CityCamp Colorado took place on October 26, 2012. Almost 140 people attended the event, making it the largest gathering of open government advocates ever in Colorado. The attendees and presenters include city CIOs and IT staff, senior city leaders, Colorado state IT leaders, private enterprises and startups, nonprofits, elected officials and citizens.
Continue readingCome to CityCamp Oakland
On December 1, all roads will lead to Oakland, CA for CityCamp Oakland -- an unstructured conference where municipal employees, department heads, technology folks, developers, journalists and engaged citizens will talk about technology and local government. Organized by OpenOakland, the City of Oakland and other local organizations, CityCamp Oakland will show how innovative technology and open data can improve civic engagement, increase efficiency and government transparency while connecting residents to the city of Oakland. The Camp will be at the City Hall. Sunlight’s Evangelist, Bill Pease will also be present to share more on what we do, the data and tools we provide to support open government and our approach to local innovations.
Continue readingInternational Declaration on Parliamentary Openness
Tomorrow morning, I'll be joining a number of other organizations in addressing a broad gathering of parliamentary officials at the World e-Parliament Conference. We'll be formally announcing the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, a joint document prepared and drafted by the growing movement of Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations, or PMOs, operating throughout the world. This is the clearest, most broadly representative effort yet to represent global norms for legislative transparency. It's intended to create common goals and expectations for a representative branch of government that is transparent and accountable, increasingly by using new technology to represent citizens better. Sunlight is participating as both a PMO, since our advocacy, reporting, and technology are so often about political influence and substance in Congress, and also as a convener, joining with the National Democratic Institute and the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency to connect PMOs from around the globe. We created OpeningParliament.org to serve as a resource for the group and our activities, and since our kickoff meeting in May 2012 (adjacent to TransparencyCamp), the community has grown dramatically, and worked together to shape and sharpen the declaration. Over 80 organizations have now endorsed the declaration, and we're proud to be presenting it to officials from the world's Congresses, Assemblies, and Parliaments tomorrow.
Continue readingCongrats to OpenGov Champs Homicide Watch DC on Meeting Kickstarter Goal
As the director of our ongoing mini-documentary series OpenGov Champions I am pleased to see that Homicide Watch DC, one... View Article
Continue readingFilming OpenGov Champions: Liz Barry
As Sunlight’s Video production Director it is my delight to be producing an ongoing video series called OpenGov Champions, featuring... View Article
Continue readingStarting a Sunlight Meetup
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the... View Article
Continue readingTransparencyCamp 2012: Reflections, Next Steps, and Thanks
Sunlight closed its doors today to take a rest after last weekend, but still I find myself pouring over Twitter... View Article
Continue readingFilming OpenGov Champions Homicide Watch DC
Working on our short documentary series called OpenGov Champions I get to go and hang out with some extremely smart,... View Article
Continue readingVolunteer for #TCamp12!
[View the story “Volunteer for TransparencyCamp 2012” on Storify] Volunteer for TransparencyCamp 2012 The success of this year’s TCamp relies... View Article
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